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How To Stop Anxiety Instantly

Anxiety Tips To Help You Every Day

How To Stop Anxiety Immediately

ByMeg Walterspublished 3 November 21

Here are 7 anxiety tips to help you relieve stress and worry in your daily life

Your pulse starts racing, your breathing speeds up, your body begins to tremble if you experience anxiety, these symptoms are probably all too familiar to you. While we can all feel anxious from time to time, if you find yourself struggling with persistent or recurring feelings of worry, panic and stress, you may want to consult with your doctor. However, you may also find these seven anxiety tips helpful for coping with the symptoms of anxiety.

When anxiety sets in, it can be scary. In some cases, it can even be a debilitating condition, making it impossible to get on with your regular daily tasks. However, there are a few changes you can make to your lifestyle with anxiety tips to keep stress at bay. We spoke to experts about how aspects such as sleep, exercise and diet all play a huge role in regulating and managing anxiety.

Quick Ways To Reduce Stress

Taking care of your long-term mental and physical health is an important part of stress management. However, there isnt always time to take a nap, hike a fourteener, or read a novel. Thus, here are 25 ways to reduce stress in five minutes or less. From eating chocolate to meditating, there is a quick stress-relieving tactic for everyone.

1. BreatheSlow, deep breaths can help lower blood pressure and heart rate. Try pranayama breathing, a yogic method that involves breathing through one nostril at a time to relieve anxiety. The technique is supposed to work the same way as acupuncture, balancing the mind and body.

2. Listen to Music No matter what the song, sometimes belting out the lyrics to a favorite tune makes everything seem all right. If youre in a public place, just listening to music can be a quick fix for a bad mood. Classical music can be especially relaxing right before bedtime.

3. Take a Quick Walk When youre feeling overwhelmed or having trouble concentrating, go for a quick stroll around the block. Youll get the benefits of alone time, physical activity, and a few minutes to gather your thoughts.

4. Find the Sun If its a sunny day, head outside for an easy way to lift your spirits. Bright light can be an effective treatment for people who suffer from depression, and can even cheer up otherwise healthy people.

8. Rub Your Feet Over a Golf Ball You can get an impromptu, relaxing foot massage by rubbing your feet back and forth over a golf ball.

12. Be Alone

How Do You Calm Down Anxiety Instantly

If youre driving, at work or in another public space and are feeling overly-anxious, then you may want to try and calm yourself down as soon as you possibly can.11

While its not always possible to immediately feel less anxious, there are plenty of self-help tactics you can follow to help make yourself feel calmer sooner. They include:

  • Taking time out from what you are doing.
  • Taking deep breaths.
  • Accepting you cannot control everything.
  • Thinking about whats triggered your anxiety.
  • Talking to somebody a friend, a colleague, a family member or a therapist.
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    What Makes Essentials Oils Calming

    Why do essential oils have the ability to help people feel less anxious?

    Its believed that theyre capable of sending chemical signals directly to the part of our brain thats responsible for controlling our mood and our emotions.

    Having said that, essential oils cant take away feelings of anxiety altogether, but they can potentially take the edge off and help you relax.

    For instance, just the thought of a dreamy hot soak in a lavender bath is relaxing, and has even more of a calming effect in reality too.36

    Calm Anxiety With Present

    11 Natural Ways to Quickly Stop an Anxiety Attack

    In moments of heightened anxiety, fear follows you wherever you go. There is an escape route for that 1-2 body-mind punch: present-moment mindfulness. To become mindful in the present moment, repeat this mantra: I am in the present moment. I feel calm. By focusing on your breathing, you are reducing your anxiety by steering your thoughts in another direction. Mindfulness makes you the captain of your ship and the navigator of your thoughts.

    Also Check: Is Anxiety Medication Worth It

    Tip : Recognize When Youre Stressed

    It might seem obvious that youd know when youre stressed, but many of us spend so much time in a frazzled state that weve forgotten what it feels like when our nervous systems are in balance: when were calm yet still alert and focused. If this is you, you can recognize when youre stressed by listening to your body. When youre tired, your eyes feel heavy and you might rest your head on your hand. When youre happy, you laugh easily. And when youre stressed, your body lets you know that, too. Get in the habit of paying attention to your bodys clues.

    Observe your muscles and insides. Are your muscles tense or sore? Is your stomach tight, cramped, or aching? Are your hands or jaw clenched?

    Observe your breath. Is your breathing shallow? Place one hand on your belly, the other on your chest. Watch your hands rise and fall with each breath. Notice when you breathe fully or when you forget to breathe.

    How Can I Calm My Anxiety Fast

    Medication is an option for long-term anxiety. But, they are not always an instant fix. Anti-anxiety medications, such as Ativan, Klonopin, or Xanax, can work quicklywithin minutes or hours. Antidepressant medications, sometimes used to treat anxiety, can take a few weeks to reach maximum effectiveness. As Heathman explains, Medication can take much longer to work as medication must be ingested, digested, absorbed, and then transferred in the bloodstream.

    If youre experiencing anxiety for the first time or youre having an unexpected spike of anxiety, there are some techniques you can employ in the moment to help with your developing symptoms. Sudden onset anxiety is best controlled with relaxation techniques, Heathman says, which can work instantly after being employed. Some calming strategies include:

    All of these techniques work by changing your brains focus, so that anxiety symptoms can pass. One of the keys to calming anxiety is also recognizing when and why it is happening. If you can sense that it is spiking, Saxena explains, then you can challenge yourself to use the same thought pattern to understand that it is a passing feeling.

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    Practice Good Sleep Hygiene

    Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day weekends included.

    Your routine before going to bed also matters. Consider giving yourself wind-down times. For example, 20 minutes with no devices. Instead, you could read a book or take a bath.

    Avoiding potential triggers, like watching TV or scrolling the news on your phone, is key.

    Creating a sleep routine will help you fall asleep faster and reduce the chances that youll lie awake, worrying about unfinished tasks or the next morning.

    Calm Anxiety With 4/7/8 Breathing

    How to Instantly Relieve Anxiety

    A panic attack comes on fast, often without warning. One minute youre driving home listening to Hozier the next minute you are trying to decide if you should pull over and call 911. If you have no other signs of a heart attack, but need to know how to calm anxiety, practice this easy breathing technique called 4/7/8: Breathe in for 4 seconds. Hold your breath for 7 seconds. Exhale for 8 seconds. Do this a few times. It causes a shift in your nervous system from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic response.

    Also Check: Why Is Anxiety Worse At Night

    Why Do You Get Anxiety At Night

    When you lie down at night to unwind, your brain turns to all of the worries it didnt have time for during the day. Frequently, this anxiety revolves around worries you cant solve in the moment.

    All the things that have been put on the back burner come to the forefront of your head, Dr. Albers says. Without competing demands for your attention, these worries often get louder and more pronounced.

    Chronic daytime stress puts your body into overdrive and taxes your hormones and adrenal system, which are directly linked to sleep so sleep troubles may be a red flag telling you to address stress during your waking hours.

    Nighttime anxiety can trigger a vicious cycle: A bad nights sleep leads to exhaustion the next day and disrupts your bodys natural rhythms. This makes you more vulnerable to anxiety during the day that can bleed into the night, Dr. Albers says. And so the cycle repeats.

    Use Muscle Relaxation Techniques

    Muscle tension is a symptom of anxiety, and muscle relaxation techniques can help reduce tension and promote relaxation during an attack. Progressive muscle relaxation aims to release tension in one group of muscles at a time to relax the whole body.

    Much like deep breathing, muscle relaxation techniques can help stop your panic attack in its tracks by controlling your bodys response as much as possible.

    If you attend muscle relaxation therapy, your therapist might take you through the following

    • First, you may learn how to tense the muscles before releasing the tension.
    • Then, you will learn how to relax the muscles without tensing them first.
    • You may also learn how to relax specific sets of muscles, for example, in the shoulders, for practical use in everyday situations.
    • Finally, you may learn how to practice rapid relaxation, when you can identify any areas of tension and release it as needed.

    To start relaxing your muscles at home, consciously relax one muscle at a time, starting with something simple like the fingers in your hand, and move your way up through your body.

    Muscle relaxation techniques will be most effective when youve practiced them beforehand.

    Read Also: Can Hypnosis Help With Social Anxiety

    How Does Sleep Affect Your Physical Health

    When it comes to physical health, a lack of sleep can also affect you. Adults who are not getting the recommended 7 hours of sleep each night are more likely to have health issues including heart attack, asthma, and depression. This can also lead to an increase in heart disease and stroke. Other health problems include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. These are just a few reasons you should know the importance of sleep for your physical health to lower your heart issues and other conditions.

    Feel Good Hormones Help You Write Better

    How To Relieve Stress Quickly (just 2 minutes!)

    Focusing on happiness and gratitude leads to the release of two feel good hormones dopamine and serotonin.

    These two neurotransmitters are responsible for those kickass warm feelings. Yes, there are other ways to get them like exercise and chocolate for example.

    But who wouldnt want to increase these powerful antidepressants with something as simple as giving and receiving gratitude?

    Heres the thing: you can make your own happiness. Which gives you more time to focus on what matters most: your writing.

    And its not just a mental boost. Focusing on positivity, making a conscious effort to be more grateful and happier changes the balances of hormones and neurotransmitters in your body and your brain.

    In short, practicing gratitude and the resulting feeling of happiness are a powerful strategy to beat writer anxiety compared to other methods like expensive therapy or medicine.

    Read Also: How To Relieve Anxiety In Children

    Self Hypnosis Meditation To Stop Anxiety

    ultimate way to break the cycle of anxiety

    With this self-hypnosis meditation audio, your brain receives a clear signal that you are safe. if you practice this deep relaxation meditation on a daily basis, your brain gets a chance to realize you are not in danger and is open to re-program new thoughts and ways of behaving.

    All this happens without any effort on your side. All you have to do is listen.

    You can listen on your computer or device or via the free app which you can access anytime.

    Fewer Stress Hormones That Cause Writer Anxiety

    When youre not able to write because feeling anxious or scared about something, your body releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

    These chemicals arent supposed to be bad for you. They can help you react fast when youre about to be hit by a car and make you run faster when you need to get away from a seagull about to divebomb you

    But it works against you and robs you of your health and wellbeing when its a response to something that isnt a physical danger. Like writer anxiety or worrying about paying your rent.

    Stress hormones can lead to weight gain, depression, anxiety, and they even take a toll on your heart. You know you should do what you can to reduce the stress you feel and as it turns out, one of the most powerful strategies here is practicing gratitude and positive thinking.

    So take the active steps to choose happiness each day and know that by doing so, youre doing wonders for your mental and physical health as well as your creative input in defeating any writer anxiety you might have.

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    Consider Natural Sleep Aids

    There are a handful of vitamins, herbal remedies and essential oils out there which may promote sleep.24 These include:

    • Magnesium magnesium is one of the minerals needed by the body to make melatonin, a hormone linked to sleep.
    • Valerian valerian has been used for hundreds of years as a natural sleep aid and is thought to be a beneficial treatment for things such as anxiety and stress. Based on traditional use only.
    • Lavender this fragrant flower has also long been a sleep aid, with some studies showing lavenders strong scent can make you feel more relaxed after just 30 minutes.

    Tip : Make Quick Stress Relief A Habit

    How to stop a panic attack instantly

    Its not easy to remember to use your senses in the middle of a minior or not so minocrisis. At first, it will feel easier to just give into pressure and tense up. But with time, calling upon your senses will become second nature. Think of the process like learning to drive or play golf. You dont master the skill in one lesson you have to practice until it becomes second nature. Eventually youll feel like youre forgetting something if you dont tune into your body during challenging times. Heres how to make it habit:

    Start small. Instead of testing your quick stress relief tools on a source of major stress, start with a predictable low-level source of stress, like cooking dinner at the end of a long day or sitting down to pay bills.

    Identify and target. Think of just one low-level stressor that you know will occur several times a week, such as commuting. Vow to target that stressor with quick stress relief every time. After a few weeks, target a second stressor and so on.

    Test-drive sensory input. If you are practicing quick stress relief on your commute to work, bring a scented handkerchief with you one day, try music another day, and try a movement the next day. Keep experimenting until you find a clear winner.

    Have fun with the process. If something doesnt work, dont force it. Move on until you find what works best for you. It should be pleasurable and noticeably calming.

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